College Town

Sunday

Dec 20, 2009 at 6:00 AM

By Lisa D. Welsh TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Assumption College alumnus Justin Smith, who works in admissions at the college, celebrated his 10th Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk at Assumption recently and also marked his 10th year as a cancer survivor. As an Assumption freshman, Mr. Smith was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy and radiation but returned to campus in the fall of 1999 and participated in the college’s first Light the Night Walk.

This year, the student-run event raised $123,863 as nearly 800 walkers from the campus, Worcester and other Central Mass communities participated in the evening walk while holding illuminated balloons. The event is one of the largest LLS walks in New England and one of the few to exceed its fundraising goal this year. Tom Fitzpatrick, president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, presented Assumption President Francesco Cesareo with the society’s Chairman’s Citation Award, signifying national recognition of the college’s decade of commitment to the LLS mission.

The Quinsigamond Community College campus was all aglow as students, faculty, and staff placed luminary candles on the new stone wall overlooking Amy’s Slope at the front of campus last week. Candles were lighted to celebrate something an individual was thankful for from 2009 or hopeful for 2010.

More than 75 attended even though it was incredibly windy and cold that evening. President Gail Carberry addressed the group, as did Dale Allen, vice president for community engagement, who organized the event. About 20 people from the audience — invited to speak in an open mic session — gave thanks for the past year and talked about what they looked forward to in 2010.

Clark University President John Bassett has been asked to join a new Presidents’ Trust formed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, a national group of 82 college and university leaders/advocates for liberal education and its value in today’s world.

“As the nation is setting new goals for increasing college attainment, we need to focus like a laser beam on the kinds of learning that build both economic vitality and civic commitment,” said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. “Members of the Trust, including President Bassett, are helping to redirect the national dialogue to address these critical issues. In this new global century, his leadership will help ensure that all college students in all majors receive the kind of excellent education they deserve — one that provides them with broad knowledge, sophisticated intellectual and practical skills, a well-developed sense of personal and social responsibility, and the capacity to apply learning to new problems.”

Marking the 40-year anniversary of the first message between two computers, Worcester State College students recognized National Computer Science Education week with a robotics competition, demonstrations and displays that featured computer programming.

Students in Karl Wurst’s Robotics course featured Roomba technology — robots without remote controls — as students programmed the robots, to see and move items and complete tasks.

“Massachusetts is one of the top two states for robotics in the country,” said professor Wurst. “This presents a great opportunity for students to work with real world problems, not just the virtual world of computer programs.”

More than 250 elementary and middle school students from across the Northeast were expected to participate in the 9th annual RoboNautica at Worcester Polytechnic Institute yesterday.

RoboNautica is Massachusetts’ official state championship tournament of FIRST LEGO League, and it showcases the talents of hundreds of children ages 9-14 from across the Northeast region.

This year’s theme is “Smart Moves” as teams create robots to simulate important challenges in transportation including gaining access to things, places and people as well as avoiding and surviving impacts.

To qualify for RoboNautica, all participating teams gave successful performances earlier this year at one of five regional tournaments held throughout the state. A total of 64 teams were to compete. By hosting this and several other annual robotics events, WPI has become the proving ground for hundreds of would-be robotics champions in New England.